Fletcher Building (FBU)

Fletcher Building
affirmed its commitment to Asian growth this week by reworking the management structure of two of its big building products and announcing a new manufacturing facility in China. The dual-listed construction materials group is building a manufacturing facility in Jiujiang, China, which will become one of the largest plants within its Formica Group and double the group’s capacity in China. Formica chief executive Mark Adamson said the Chinese market was already twice that of the US and continued to grow at 15 per cent a year. Asia’s importance to the group was underlined by the announcement that Fletcher Building was combining its Laminex and Formica businesses under the one division. Mr Adamson will become the division’s CEO. This, coupled with the expected uplift from the Christchurch rebuilding process, makes Fletcher an enticing investment prospect compared with its peers, some of which are dealing with high exposures to a dour Australian construction market.